Comments on: The tipping report: How to navigate the 10%

By: Lucia

Lucia — Sat, 25 May 2019 05:19:45 +0000

I do not mind tipping,though I feel like it should be my own choice to do so. I do understand that servers might not be paid well. But I also make enough just to get by.so with all that I have said,tipping should never be compulsory.

By: Emce Ferreira

Emce Ferreira — Mon, 24 Dec 2018 16:33:48 +0000

It’s poor etiquette NOT to tip. I read a lot of comments about people not topping their accounts. Your account makes a shit load of money. Waiters are normally student or youngster starting off in live. I believe in being fair and giving and paying it forward. People that’s to stingy to tip should stay at home….

By: Robsons

Robsons — Mon, 01 Oct 2018 08:34:43 +0000

Its so sad when the management steals waiter’s tips seriously.. having a poor person running up and trying to give the best service as possible to the patrons.. after that patrons tip them ,then the management takes the tips to themselves.. something needs to be done this is really sad and selfish

By: Ian Fraser

Ian Fraser — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 20:54:43 +0000

People should get out of the bad habit of tipping.

ALL waiters in South Africa are paid employees (this coming from someone who has worked in the restaurant industry for 16 years).

Do you tip your accountant?

All the waiters do is to take an order, place the order and take the order to the table. The kitchen staff do the hard work and are paid exactly the same as the waiters.

Rather save the tip and come back again.

By: Grace

Grace — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 10:54:39 +0000

In reply to Jessy.

Hi Jessy, I totally agree with you. People shouldn’t be forced to tip! I’m not tipped for doing my job. The problem of poor salaries it’s not ours. My salary is also a poor salary but I do my best to at least afford restaurants. If your salary as a waiter is not enough then change your career! Don’t put that responsibility on our shoulders. A tip is like a gift, you can’t choose, you have to be thankful because sometimes, that’s all I can give! I find it very ungrateful when waiters complain with a client who tipped them with R20. For some of us, that a lot of money. In my country R20 is 100 and we normally tip our waiters 10 or 20 of the local currency, some don’t even tip but they’ll still treat you with respect and never complain. Imagine how much money I’d spend only on tips if I’m to eat out for every single meal. That 3-4 times a day, it’s too much! A waiter in Nelson Mandela square, told me that 20% for tips was stipulated by law. What I understand from that is that if I don’t pay that 20% they can press charges and I could be punished for not tipping. Can anyone clarify this for me please.

By: Jessy

Jessy — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 15:40:04 +0000

The 1 thing I hate about sit down restaurants is feeling obligated to tip and I especially hate when the waiters tell me its compulsory. If its not stipulated on the menu as such then its NOT compulsory! Heres something I really don’t understand though, we receive a service from many different sectors/industries on a daily basis and many employees are paid worse than waiters however why is it that we only tip waiters and NO ONE else we receive a service from? How badly are waiters paid that they rely solely/mainly on tips & who ever came up with this “rule”? Don’t get me wrong I do tip but I tip what I think is fair!

By: Amelia van der Merwe

Amelia van der Merwe — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 13:56:46 +0000

I always tip more than 10% going up to 25% in cash if the service is really superior. If service is “acceptable” I will tip 10%. Very often these days there are very very poor waiters/waitresess and often in restaurants that are not that busy I will tip them but very poorly, I feel that as a Patron I am entitled to half decent service from the server, if they give poor service they should not expect a decent tip. I think that is fair?

I do however always try to tip with cash as I know some restaurant owners take the Service fee for card payments off the tip, I may be wrong but I do ask and 99.9% the staff is much happier with cash.

By: Graeme Marshall

Graeme Marshall — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 11:00:47 +0000

I manage a very busy restaurant, and in general, service is great and rewarded with appropriate gratuities. I have however noticed that our waiters, who are all from Zimbabwe, are very loath to serve their local indigenous brothers as they know that firstly the whole xenophobic attitude about Zimbabweans taking jobs from locals influences the attitude of the patrons to their waiters and hence affects their gratuities, and secondly they (waiters) never know if their indigenous brother guests are even aware of the national norm of tipping at the end of their dining experience. We recently had a group in from the Transkei and they were apparently completely oblivious of this “Urban traditon”. When I enquired if they were happy with the service they received, they replied “Yes, fantastic. You must be paying your staff extremely well to get them to perform such beautiful and efficient service.”

By: Craig

Craig — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 07:47:09 +0000

In reply to Anonymous.

Hi “Anonymous”, Craig here from the Col’Cacchio pizzeria head office. In reading your comments about your experience at one of our stores, we very much would like to follow this up with you – as the tip inclusion ‘somewhere in the middle’ of the bill is certainly not something we practice. We would love to get to the bottom of this and would greatly appreciate it if you could get in contact with me at craig@colcacchio.co.za so we can resolve the matter further. Thank you in advance, Craig.

By: mark hammond

mark hammond — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 13:42:53 +0000

How about if waiters have to abide by a code of conduct, whicn can protect patrons from worrying about their food, if it has to be sent back or there is some query with it.
This way patrons know what to expect from waiters and will be more inclined to tip waiters abiding by the code